Daily Archives: January 25, 2023

A Good Start to a New Year

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If this year is to be judged by just its beginning , it’s been a good year already. David and I started it out by going to a gospel sing at our church where a few different gospel singers sang and our preacher gave the sermon. The night was titled, “It’s twelve O’clock Somewhere,” because as the evening progressed and some people would leave we could vote whether we wanted the singing to go on. Several people left, here and there and it got to be ten o’clock and they were going to vote whether to keep on going, but David and I were tired and decided to leave before the vote so we don’t know how late the rest of them stayed. When we got home we watched a little tv and I went to bed before the New Year’s. I’m a real party animal. Poor David didn’t even get his New Year’s kiss like I usually give him. I was sawing logs when that ball came down. Oh, well. Anyway, Happy New Year to you all. Hope it is going well for you.

I had to get another shot in my eye this month which would not have been a good start, but Dr. Shah said my eye looked normal and I no longer needed any shots. I was so happy to hear that. I have to go back for a check up in a few weeks, but I am praying all will still be well with my eyes. At my age I don’t have cataracts like some people my age do. David had them and had to have surgery a few years ago.

David took a week off work at Ralph Lauren to celebrate his 75th birthday. I told him I never thought I would ever be married to someone so old, but then, I’m not far behind him. We celebrated by going to the ear doctor to have our hearing checked and one of my ears looked at that had been bothering me. The hearing specialist told David he was slightly hard of hearing, but not enough to need hearing aides. And then he checked my hearing. No one wants to hear these words about anything to do with you health or body. “I’ve got bad news for you,” the man said to me. I have 50% hearing loss and certain words I can hear with my ears do not compute in my brain. I’ve noticed that when talking to some people. They can be right next to me and I can hear what they say, but don’t know what they said, if that makes any sense. Then he gave me the choice of the cheap or the luxury hearing aides. I told David since he didn’t need any I was taking the luxury ones! I sure hope they work. I’m getting them this week.

After those fun times we spent the rest of the week having fun. We went out to eat three times, one time at IHOP with some loved ones. I love IHOP and usually get the classic french toast but I tried the bananas and strawberry french toast not knowing they pour strawberry syrup all over it also. I didn’t like it as well as the classic so I will stick with that next time. I love IHOP coffee. Usually I don’t like coffee anywhere, but at my house, but theirs is really good. I took David out to eat at Olive Garden where we love the Zuppa Toscana with breadsticks and salad, all you can eat which means I can usually get through one salad and one soup and maybe three breadsticks if I’m really hungry.

We took our Christmas tree down last Monday. We kept it up so long because our granddaughter and her husband were going to come down and get their Christmas presents last Sunday, but we had several inches of snow overnight and they couldn’t come so we will have to plan another time. Maybe go up to where they live and eat at a really great pancake house they have not far from their house. Always an excuse to go there. One of our favorite places and their coffee is pretty good, too.

Anyway, after the tree came down we cleaned our living room from top to bottom, washing windows, dusting the baseboards, putting away my collection of Santa Clauses and our nativity. And we moved furniture around which is something I love to do. When I was younger and stronger, I use to move furniture all by myself and I did it often. David said he never knew where the furniture would be when he got home from work.

I’ve typed all this time and not a single picture.

Here’s where the tree use to be.

My Christmas cactus bloomed Thanksgiving, had a few blossoms at Christmas and here it is in all its glory now. I think it’s confused.
I think transplanting it to a larger pot and putting it outside last Summer, where it flourished, has given it a new boost on life.
Have I already shown you the three pairs of socks I’ve knitted since Christmas? This is just one of each pair. I used up yarn I had over from other socks and I’m thinking I like knitting socks like this better than just the one color ones.
I got this absolutely beautiful yarn from a shop out of North Pole, Alaska called Bad Sheep. This picture does not do the colors justice. They are so vibrant. The one that looks like it’s blue is actually a deep green and the one that looks rose colored is red in color. These will be knit into socks and I may mix and match them to make what I like to call my “patchwork” socks.
Have I shown you this quilt I have finished since Christmas, also? If I did, consider my age and ignore it if I already showed you! I’m ashamed to say I have spent very little time in my shop sewing ever since my Christmas sale. I plan to finish more of my unfinished quilts this years, so I better get cracking.
I followed the advice of Mary over on Country Threads Farm Life blog who only quilts in straight lines. She gets sooo many quilts completed this way and I’ve decided I am going to do that also and get some done. I probably have fifteen or twenty unfinished quilts laying around and I also have plans to piece some more. I can’t hand quilt them all, unfortunately, but I will get them completed and into someone else’s hands. I kind of enjoyed just straight quilting on the machine and it sure was a whole lot easier than trying to turn corners.
David’s birthday cake. Not one of the prettiest you will see, but it was good and yes, it’s almost gone. We have candles for every age now and I rustled up these to put on the cake. At one time someone in our family was seven and someone was once five. They are all grown up now. Boo hoo.

Here’s the birthday boy. He’s looking pretty good for three quarters of a century. I think I’ll keep him for another 75(if that were possible!) He does love his sweets and he wanted a chocolate cake.

Because I have NOTHING else to do, I ordered a couple of paint by number pictures to paint. The paint by numbers aren’t like they were when I was a girl where you got maybe ten paints and one brush and that was all you needed. Now the pictures are very intricate and I got 24 paints and five brushes with each picture. As you can see, there are a lot of parts to this painting. I really don’t know how a real artist figures out what and where to paint to paint a masterpiece.

This is what the painting should look like when I’m finished. I’m going to put it on the wall by my owl floor lamp I bought myself. Ahh, look at Mr. Snowman peeking around the picture.
I’m still loving this lamp. I have it on all the time burning electricity and I don’t care. I’m going to do a blog about my love of eclectic lighting in my house. I always buy what I love, not always what I should and my tastes have changed through the years, but that’s another blog one day. The little light you can see behind the chair is one of my finds at an antique store that they were using for lighting and I talked them out of it.
Back to my painting. Here is the next picture I will paint. If you have been reading my blog for any time, you know I love my Labs. I have a chocolate one and a black one. Never have had a golden one. I would love to have a silver one and we tried to get one, but they are hard to find. This will go well with my Lab table I got for Christmas.
Here is what you get with the kits. I’m thinking about buying some better brushes to do the dog picture because the ones that do come with the painting are not high quality and don’t have fine points and there are a whole lot of teeny tiny things to paint in these pictures. Which is why I use this….
David surprised me and ordered me a new magnifying glass on Amazon. My old one had a bad place in it right in the middle and it was not easy to paint with. My new one is wonderful and I can see every tiny thing.

I’ve rattled on long enough. Just didn’t want January to go by without checking in. If the rest of the months are like this one, it’s going to be a very busy year and for that, I am grateful. I hate being bored and I never am because I’m always looking for something to do and I’m thankful I have a man who tries to keep up with me and helps me in many of my endeavors.

Here’s to new years, things to do, and husbands to love. Bye.